Agenda Newsletter - August 16, 2007

Cam’ron’s summer YouTube barrage put his goofball bluster on blast, like when he shit-talked 50 Cent in his underwear. But this woozy, slender track, with its falsetto croon sample, is tailor-made for a different Cam tack: the nostalgia trip. The outsize Texan Slim Thug and the next New York great Papoose turn in bravado verses, but Cam takes us back to 140th and Lex: “I realized I wanted cameras on the coupe / and I couldn’t get that jamming standing on the stoop.”

Ryan Gosling drubs Anthony Hopkins
Fracture

Sure, Fracture is a solid thriller: A maniacal genius (Anthony Hopkins) constructs the perfect crime in order to murder his wife, then he taunts the cocky young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) who can’t find any material evidence. There are plenty of twists and turns—none as surprising as the film’s greatest shock: that Hopkins practically fades into the background, while Gosling steals the show. When’s the last time you saw someone upstage Sir H?

Long cherished by those with a yen for the bleak existentialism that defined the streets of New York in the seventies, this film's finally out on DVD. A group of junkies and ne’er-do-wells convene and fight, among them smart aleck Bobby (played by Al Pacino!) and his girlfriend, Helen (Kitty Winn). The two inflict all sort of physical and psychological violence on each other; the restraint with which their story is told owes to screenwriter Joan Didion’s laconic style.

This grab-bag box set of four fascinating Shakespearean adaptations is worth snagging for the surprise casting alone: There’s Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 Hamlet, Laurence Olivier’s 1965 Othello, a swooning MGM take on Romeo & Juliet from 1935, and the standout offering: A Midsummer Night’s Dream from 1935, starring Warner’s in-house actors—Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, James Cagney as Bottom, and (aww!) Mickey Rooney as Puck.

Of the Gérard Depardieu retrospective's classic performances, one of the most memorable, if lesser known, is his turn as the real-life seventeenth-century viol player Marin Marais. This film tracks Marais’s intense relationship with his music teacher, the reclusive genius Sainte-Colombe, and his youthful passion for one of the man’s daughters. Done up in frilly period dress and not unwilling to indulge in a histrionic word or two, Depardieu plays the part with signature visceral intelligence.

Now that she’s old enough to take in a Yankees game, introduce her to what some fans say is the best baseball movie ever made. This star-studded film, nominated for all kinds of awards back in '84, is partly inspired by the Shoeless Joe story. If you're feeling ambitious, you can even help her suss out which characters represent whom in Greek and Roman mythology. A D.J. spins before sunset, and you’ll find food from local restaurants on-site.